El Cerrito Is Kicking the Can Again — And Residents Deserve Better

El Cerrito’s Swim Center lap pool needs attention. No one disputes that. The replastering project is a basic, overdue maintenance task, and residents want facilities that are safe, functional, and well-maintained.

What’s at issue is how the City plans to pay for it — and what that decision reveals about the ongoing pattern of pushing financial problems into the next fiscal year instead of addressing them head-on.

This Tuesday, December 2, at City Hall, the City Council will vote on awarding a contract for the Swim Center Lap Pool Replastering Project, City Project No. C3050.9. Staff is recommending that the contract be awarded to Burkett’s Pool Plastering Inc. for $228,103, with an additional $34,215 authorized for potential change orders. That part is straightforward.

The problem is the funding plan. Staff is proposing a one-time allocation from the General Fund for $183,300 — but not this year. They’re pushing it into Fiscal Year 2025–26.

On paper, that might look tidy. In reality, it is yet another example of fiscal sleight of hand that keeps El Cerrito from ever achieving proper financial stability.

Here’s the context residents deserve to know.

The City labor budget is already about 5 percent over budget this year because it did not adequately account for salary and pension costs. These are not random or unpredictable costs. They are the largest drivers of the City’s financial obligations, and they are known in advance. When those numbers are underestimated, the entire financial plan becomes shaky.

Next year, labor costs — including management salaries — will increase even more. The City knows this. The unions know this. Staff know this. The council knows this. These increases are already baked into negotiations and market pressures.

So instead of first fixing the structural problem and adjusting the forecast to reflect real labor and pension costs, the City is committing future General Fund dollars to cover a project today. That means future money — money that should be used to stabilize core services — is being spent before next year’s budget is even built.

That is the textbook definition of kicking the can down the road.

And there’s an additional layer residents should not ignore.

For years, El Cerrito collected a voter-approved pool tax specifically meant to support the Swim Center. Residents were told those dollars would maintain, repair, and improve the pools. Yet much of that revenue quietly went to cover unrelated operating costs instead of the facilities it was meant to protect. As a result, the pools deteriorated while dedicated revenue was diverted to backfill other budget holes. The City is now turning to future General Fund dollars to do work that should have been paid for with the revenue voters had already provided.

This matters. When revenue intended for the pool isn’t used for the pool, residents end up paying twice — once through the special tax, and again through cuts, reallocations, or future-year General Fund obligations.

The General Fund is not play money. It pays for police, fire, streets, parks, recreation, and basic services residents depend on every day. When the City dips into future-year General Fund capacity, it is making tradeoffs — often without saying what those tradeoffs are.

If El Cerrito were on stable footing, with accurate budgeting and healthy reserves, this discussion would look different. But that is not the reality. Instead, we are watching a familiar pattern:

Underestimate labor and pension costs.
Overspend the current year.
Divert dedicated revenue to unrelated uses.
Push new spending into the next year.
Hope future revenues or future councils absorb the impact.
Repeat.

The community has seen this movie before. It’s how El Cerrito ended up on the State Auditor’s High-Risk list for years, burnt through reserves, and keeps returning to taxpayers for more revenue.

The lap pool absolutely needs replastering. But residents also deserve honest budgeting, full transparency, and a commitment to stop pre-committing future dollars — especially when dedicated revenue was already available and spent elsewhere.

And that is why this Tuesday matters.

The City Council will vote on this item on Tuesday, December 2, at City Hall. Residents who care about fiscal responsibility, transparency, and long-term stability should attend.

Show up.
Ask questions.
Express your concerns.

Cities course-correct when residents are paying attention — and El Cerrito needs that now more than ever.